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How you outfit your office plays a big role in your business results. The furniture and equipment in your office are a large factor in productivity. They may sit inert for the most part, unnoticed. But if they don’t perform as needed the results can be increased back or wrist pain, more time consumed on tasks and lowered motivation.

The furniture, in fact all the items in the office, should be ergonomically designed. That means the manufacturer has taken into account a variety of human factors to make them perform optimally for you. Sure, ‘ergonomic design’ can be nothing more than marketing buzzwords. But when done well, the benefits are real.

Office productivity is also heavily affected by your choice of desktop computers, more so today than ever before. Good monitors are part of that. Those machines’ value is often enhanced by being networked with a central office server, too.

But other equipment they connect to also plays a part. For many offices a good scanner or fax machine will see more activity than the company car. Shredders are key to security for others. A quality copier is indispensable for many. Depending on the type of business you have a great projector can be a make or break piece of equipment.

The guidelines you use in choosing any of these items is often as important as their price. Whether you buy in a retail store or online can affect not only the initial cost, but the long term value. Whether they’re purchased used or new is equally important.

When you select your equipment and furniture, go beyond the dollar or other obviously practical issues, though. Consider such things as whether the items are attractive and reflect the ‘personality’ of the office and its occupants.

It may sound like nothing but a trivial esthetic issue, but it has important practical consequences. Furniture, equipment and accessories that have style – in particular a style that reflects the taste of its individual users – will have a definite impact on motivation. That factor may be harder to quantify, but it can easily outweigh many purely utilitarian considerations.

Consider the office chair you select, as an example. It has to have certain attributes – sturdiness, adjustability, comfort – in order to be a good value. But if, in addition, it adds a sense of style according to its user’s tastes, the chair’s value is increased manyfold. The typical office worker spends several hours per day in one. It helps enormously if he or she enjoys it.

There’s as much art as science to evaluating office equipment, furniture or accessories. But there’s nonetheless wide agreement on what is attractive and workable. Some office decor encourages you to get down to business, some other might make you dread it. Ever struggle for hours with an uncooperative copier, or look around the room and see shabby furniture? If so, then you understand.

Spend some time thinking about your ideal office environment. Then, step by step, choose well to make it real. You’ll profit in numerous ways.

Small businesses need to keep their budgets tight. Weathering downturns is a challenge for every business. This principle, called capital conservation, is a major key to success, especially for those just starting out. With the cost of office furniture and equipment today, it’s more important than ever.

One way to tackle that challenge is to buy used office furniture. But it’s possible to be penny wise and pound foolish, expending even more money in the long run. Sometimes that long run isn’t very long, either. Equipment or furniture that breaks down two months after you bought it is a wasted investment, even if it was practically free. You then have to replace it, consuming the one thing no business ever has in abundance: spare time.

Even equipment that doesn’t actually break, but just fails to perform adequately can lead to a close approximation of the same problem. The whole purpose in buying furniture and equipment in the first place is to increase productivity. Otherwise, you’d simply use what was already around. When items don’t live up to their challenges, they drag you down with them.

Those facts put the question of whether to buy used or new in a different light. At first blush, saving money up front sounds very attractive. But looking farther ahead, the situation can be radically different.

The way to overcome the dilemma has, to some extent, been solved by the Internet. Following Amazon’s lead (though they didn’t invent the idea), many sites now will have reviews on anything for sale. They’re often posted by business owners just like yourself. Some of those giving an opinion are clueless. Many are experts on the subject. It’s usually easy to spot the difference.

Suppose you’re interested in shredders or projectors. Unlike computers or monitors, those are items that are just unfamiliar enough to many that an expert review can make a big difference. When you see that several knowledgeable people who have actually purchased and used a certain projector, say, and gave it high marks, you can buy with confidence. When they suggest avoiding it, you know to beware.

That’s true of both new and used items, though. To apply it to a used piece of gear you’re considering, just look for reviews that talk about reliability, maintenance, early wear, expensive parts replacements or similar phrases. Don’t just look at the numbers or stars highlighted, either. One or two unreasonable dissatisfied customers can bring those way down. Dig into the details and a whole different picture can emerge.

Looking longer term can save you money and headaches. A used fax machine, for example, might be half the cost of the same model new. But if the rollers tend to wear rapidly, causing paper jams, your lost productivity will quickly eat up the difference. Take advantage of all the information available on the web today and you’ll be better positioned to shop with confidence.

Waiting for your hard-earned cash to actually show up in your accounts can be unbearable when you’re broke. In this situation your accounting may indicate that your business is technically thriving but you still feel cash poor. Is this how your business is operating right now? If so, keep reading the following tips. By making just a few simple adjustments to your payment structure, you can start enjoying profits sooner rather than later.

Depending on the nature of your online business, customers may pay you in different ways and on different schedules.

Here are a few suggestions to get you thinking of ways to generate the cash in hand when you need it most.

1. Ask for advance payment. If you are providing a service, like ghostwriting, ask for half of the balance upfront before any work is done. That way you have insurance that the customer won’t disappear without paying, plus you can remain liquid between project assignment and project completion. This works best, obviously with new clients. I wouldn’t recommend implementing this policy with loyal clients that you’ve had for years. (Use an option below with those clients.)
2. Pre-sell your services in a bundle. This is how movie websites do it. When a hot new movie is due for release in a month, they offer a break on the price, if you pre-order. They get the money in advance, and you get the movie as soon as it hits the streets. The same technique can work for your services when you generate enough interest and anticipation. Example: A Virtual Assistant offers a deal for 10 hours of work for $150, a $100 discount off her normal $25/hour rate, when paid up front.
3. Offer a break on overdue balances. No one wants to have to make collection calls on invoices that are overdue. On outstanding balances of thirty days or more, give the client a five or ten percent discount to pay their entire balance right then. You still recoup 90 to 95 percent of what is owed. It might not be the entire amount, but at least you see some of the money instead of never seeing anything at all.
4. When is the balance due? Instead of giving customers thirty days to pay, shorten it to fifteen. Lay this out specifically in the terms of the contract so even if they don’t read it you are covered. Depending on the price, some will agree to pay the entire amount upfront if that means avoiding a service or finance charge.
5. Invoice at the beginning of the month. For service based businesses where payment dates fall once a month for recurring customers, why wait until the end of the month? Invoice early so that you have more cash to use for whatever may come up during the month.

I asked Nicole Dean of OutsourceWeekly.com for her advice, and she said “I always tell my helpers not to be afraid to remind me if I miss their invoice. I’m human and occasionally slip up. Plus, if I’m running a huge promo, their paypal request can sometimes get lost in an influx of orders. So, don’t be shy in reminding your good clients and certainly don’t assume they’re avoiding you. Also, be very upfront initially when discussing your payment preferences. Don’t expect your clients to guess that you need to be paid within 3 days because you’ve got a trip coming up. Let us know. Usually I’m more than happy to oblige to these requests and I assume most clients are.”

Are you looking for ways to raise cash for your business? You don’t always have to look to outside sources or create new products or services for the answers. Find ways to revamp your payment structure and outstanding invoices to get the money that you are due.

Your website probably doesn’t need to be redesigned

A professional website design should be effective for years to come. Depending on your niche, it’s usually recommended to redesign your website every couple of years to maintain an up to date image, but not more frequently than that. The only time you should make sweeping changes to the design of your website is when you feel that it doesn’t convey the image that you want for your company. But remember, you will tire of it long before your customers do.

You don’t have to pay every time you want to make a change

Even if all of the content on your website is accurate today, it will probably change at some time in the future. Almost every business owner has found themselves in this position at some point in time They’ve had to wait for an opening in their web designers schedule and then pay a fee before the changes could be made. This can be frustrating and sometimes costly, but it can be avoided with a content management system which enables you to easily make changes on your own. This gives you complete control over your content, it doesn’t cost you anything to make changes and you can make them whenever you want.

Web hosting is cheap

I’ve talked to lots of clients who were charged well over $100/month for web hosting – and we’re not talking about a dedicated server. These people were being charged 10 times what they should have been charged by a web designer who was simply looking to fatten their own wallets. These days, you can find reputable and reliable hosting companies for under $10/month. This usually includes unlimited traffic, bandwidth and email accounts and will more than adequate for most companies.

Website design does not equal SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is probably one of the most misunderstood fields of marketing ever. In the most basic terms possible, SEO is a combination of quality content, clean code and inbound links. Without the proper application of all three, you won’t achieve significant ranking in even a moderately competitive industry. The optimized code can only take you so far without quality content and inbound links. Any designer who assures you that their web design is all you need is trying to sell you a nice shiny bottle of snake oil.

You are not always right

The job of a web designer, aside from the obvious task of designing your website, is to provide their guidance and expertise. If they blindly agree with everything you say to do, they really aren’t giving you the best service possible. Your designer should be able to offer recommendations and explain their logic, but at the end of the day, the final decision is in your hands. I’ve worked with a few clients who insisted on doing things their own way even after we’ve advised them why a different approach would be more effective, but since they write the check, they get what they want. More often than not, however, they usually follow our recommendations when their idea didn’t work the way they had hoped.

How you outfit your office plays a big role in your business results. The furniture and equipment in your office are a large factor in productivity. They may sit inert for the most part, unnoticed. But if they don’t perform as needed the results can be increased back or wrist pain, more time consumed on tasks and lowered motivation.

The furniture, in fact all the items in the office, should be ergonomically designed. That means the manufacturer has taken into account a variety of human factors to make them perform optimally for you. Sure, ‘ergonomic design’ can be nothing more than marketing buzzwords. But when done well, the benefits are real.

Office productivity is also heavily affected by your choice of desktop computers, more so today than ever before. Good monitors are part of that. Those machines’ value is often enhanced by being networked with a central office server, too.

But other equipment they connect to also plays a part. For many offices a good scanner or fax machine will see more activity than the company car. Shredders are key to security for others. A quality copier is indispensable for many. Depending on the type of business you have a great projector can be a make or break piece of equipment.

The guidelines you use in choosing any of these items is often as important as their price. Whether you buy in a retail store or online can affect not only the initial cost, but the long term value. Whether they’re purchased used or new is equally important.

When you select your equipment and furniture, go beyond the dollar or other obviously practical issues, though. Consider such things as whether the items are attractive and reflect the ‘personality’ of the office and its occupants.

It may sound like nothing but a trivial esthetic issue, but it has important practical consequences. Furniture, equipment and accessories that have style – in particular a style that reflects the taste of its individual users – will have a definite impact on motivation. That factor may be harder to quantify, but it can easily outweigh many purely utilitarian considerations.

Consider the office chair you select, as an example. It has to have certain attributes – sturdiness, adjustability, comfort – in order to be a good value. But if, in addition, it adds a sense of style according to its user’s tastes, the chair’s value is increased manyfold. The typical office worker spends several hours per day in one. It helps enormously if he or she enjoys it.

There’s as much art as science to evaluating office equipment, furniture or accessories. But there’s nonetheless wide agreement on what is attractive and workable. Some office decor encourages you to get down to business, some other might make you dread it. Ever struggle for hours with an uncooperative copier, or look around the room and see shabby furniture? If so, then you understand.

Spend some time thinking about your ideal office environment. Then, step by step, choose well to make it real. You’ll profit in numerous ways.